"A few weeks ago I raised the question of what to do with
some extra money that just happened to fall out of the sky.
The decision that I finally made was to get two kits for
observing accessories.  The first kit to arrive was for the
TL Systems Equatorial Platform.  The second kit is the
"CATSPERCH(TM)" observing chair.  For a variety of reasons
which I will go into in a later message on the equatorial
platform, the chair has gotten built first.

The kit comes packed neatly in a box about 48"L x 6"W x 3"D.
Every part is neatly packed in, and carefully labeled.
 Because of this labelling, there is basically no chance of
mis-assembling the kit.  All parts are fully shaped, with
screw holes drilled and countersunk.

Assembly went fairly quickly.  The instructions are well
detailed, and come with drawings apparently done in a CAD
package. I am not a highly skilled wood worker, and yet I
had few problems putting the kit together in a total work
time of about 2 hours. Most pieces fit together quite well.
The only exception were the fronts of the seat and footrest,
neither of which were perfect. However, the instructions do
warn you that some care is need to get these pieces to fit
perfectly.  Mine don't, however, I didn't follow the
instructions to the letter ;-).

The completed (not yet finished) chair is quite handsome and
stable.  The first thing I did after attaching the last
piece was to put the seat up to its highest setting (~42")
and climb up by way of the supplied foot pegs.  It was quite
stable, and high enough that I could probably sit at the
eyepiece of, oh, say, an 18" Obsession with no difficulty.
I guess we'll find out soon enough.

The only problem with the kit was that two holes on the seat
were not completely drilled and countersunk.  This was not
much of a problem, although it did cause me some momentary
confusion.

If you are in the market for an observing chair, the
CATSPERCH is worth looking into."